Jewelry & Beading

June 30th, 2008

Vintage Hearts

Make Art Monday!
I love love love this necklace!  I wear it a lot, usually under a jacket, so that it’s sort of subtly twinkling under there…

And to think it started out life as one of the ugliest expansion bracelets you ever saw!  I’ll be sharing a tutorial on how to make the transformation tomorrow for […]

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 25th, 2008

The Basics: Venetian and Murano glass beads suppliers

Beautiful beads from Via Murano

De Roma Venetian Glass
Imported Venetian glass beads
Venetian Bead Shop
Imported Venetian and Murano glass beads
Gems 2 Behold
Wholesalers of Venetian and Murano glass beads
Via Murano
Imported Venetian glass beads
Tags: Beading, beads, handmade beaded jewelry, jewelry, lampwork-glass-beads, venetian-beads, Wearable ArtShare This

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 24th, 2008

My co-winner at Fire Mountain Gems, Tamara Allison!

Tamara Allison contacted me recently and revealed that she and I were co-Bronze Prize winners in the Freeform/Home Decor category of Fire Mountain Gems last beading contest! Tamara has a beautiful Etsy shop called Vanishing Pearl…don’t you just love that name? She sells beautiful bead-woven jewelry and other pieces there. Here’s a […]

By Cyndi -- 3 comments

June 23rd, 2008

Amy Clarke Moore’s beautiful bead embroidery

Amy Clarke Moore is best known in the beading world for the perfection of her embroidered pieces. With her signature spiral style, each one is a marvel of precision and detail. I love her work, and I hope that if you’re not familiar with it, you’ll come to love it too! Visit Amy’s site to […]

By Cyndi -- 4 comments

June 16th, 2008

Beading with kids

Here’s a great idea for those who have small people, either preschoolers or young grade schoolers who are out for the summer! Andrea McConnell has written an article for Education.com, featuring three fun ways to make homemade beads to get them started in beautiful beadwork that their little hands can do.
And here’s a […]

By Cyndi -- 0 comments

June 12th, 2008

Artist profile: Olivia Competente

Artist: Olivia Competente
Business name: Jewels By Olivia
Location: San Francisco
Website: Jewels By Olivia
Gallery: Museum of Craft and Folk art in San Francisco

Olivia, how do you describe your work?
I have always loved sparkle and color. I started out with beads and they have always been my first love. What I do now is and extension […]

By Cyndi -- 4 comments

June 12th, 2008

Beautiful bead embroidery from Morwyn Dow

Art Attack Thursday!

June Page
Summer Solstice
Morwyn Dow, Another Country, was one of the participants in the 2007 Bead Journal Project. You can see her BJP pages at the link above: they are beautiful and haunting expressions of Morwyn’s journey through life. I enjoyed visiting her Another Country blog to see the process that she […]

By Cyndi -- 4 comments

June 10th, 2008

Ribbon bridal bracelet published in Simply Beads

As another example of finger-woven jewelry, the June 2008 issue of Simply Beads has my bracelet design in it. I mixed weaving, macrame knotting, and tied ribbons to make this piece:

Tags: Beading, beads, Mixed Media, Wearable ArtShare This

By Cyndi -- 8 comments

June 10th, 2008

Making a resin finger-woven necklace

Technique Tuesday!

There are several different methods that are popular for creating woven bead necklaces: a figure-8 style of finger weaving, spiralling half-hitch macrame, and flat square-knot macrame. My preferred technique for this necklace uses all three stitches!

Each half of the necklace is woven separately, starting at the ends and working towards the middle. For the […]

By Cyndi -- 2 comments

June 9th, 2008

Do you want to design for yourself? Conclusion

Ready, set, go make something!

This short series of discussions that we’ve been having about the various pathways and journeys that you can take into designing your own original work was not intended to turn your creativity into just another mechanical exercise. It’s also somewhat artificial to imagine that most of us are so organized and […]

By Cyndi -- 2 comments